This Black Friday weekend, consumers defied the assumption that the economy has made them scared to spend. New data from a just-released survey by the National Retail Federation indicates that more people went shopping this past Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday than last year's Black Friday weekend: An estimated total of 226 million in 2011 versus 212 million in 2010.
And they didn't just flood the stores; they also spent more. According to NRF's survey, average consumer spending jumped from $365.34 in 2010 to $398.62 in 2011. The total Black Friday haul for 2011 hovers around $52.4 billion, up 16.4 percent from 2010's figures. Online shopping account for approximately 37.8 percent of that total -- $19.8 billion, or an estimated per-person average of $150.53.
All of these totals – brick-and-mortar and online shopping – are they highest they've been in the past five years of NRF Black Friday surveys. Consumers spent more, on average, in 2011 than during any Black Friday period measured in the last five years, they spent more in total, and they spent more (and participated more) online.
And consumers aren't done yet. A total of 52.4 percent of those taking part in NRF's 3,826-person survey indicated that they were planning to shop on Black Friday's lesser cousin, Cyber Monday. That's the highest total NRF has measured over the past five years, which extrapolates out to around 122.8 million people. This audience will mostly use their computers at home to perform their Monday shopping (87.4 percent).
Interestingly, only 14.5 percent of consumers are expected to use mobile devices – smartphones and tablets – to conduct their Cyber Monday shopping, even though approximately 47.4 percent of shoppers indicated that they used their smartphones to research purchases, look up coupons, or buy items during the actual Black Friday weekend. A total of 57.1 percent indicated that they used a tablet device to perform the same actions.
So what, exactly, did consumers buy? Approximately 51.4 percent picked up "clothing or clothing accessories," the highest-scoring category on NPH's survey. Slightly below that, at 39.4 percent, were consumer electronics and computer-related accessories. Books, CDs, DVDs, and video games took a close third at 37.0 percent. Compared to last year's figures, the "multimedia" category – Books, CDs, DVDs, and video games – was down approximately five percent, and consumer electronics and computer-related accessories is up approximately three percent.
"Consumers are clearly demonstrating their desire to spend this holiday season, but are far from throwing caution to the wind when it comes to how much they will spend on gifts," said Phil Rist, executive vice president at BIGresearch, in a statement. "Retailers will have to stick to an aggressive holiday promotion schedule to keep consumers interested."
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